Yan Yean Reservoir: Celebrating its birth 150 Years on by Lindsay Mann
‘Of the first importance to a community is the plentiful supply of good water. In the formation of towns all other desiderata are subordinated to this …’. So wrote George Slater, in The News Letter of Australasia (March 1857, p. 3), in commenting on the procurement of a permanent water supply for Melbourne and suburbs.
To John Batman, the man who chose ‘the place for a village,’ Slater’s principle was obvious long before those words were spoken. The waterfall dividing the brackish tidal flow from a sweet stream that originated in the mountains was also the signpost to its location. He was prepared to put-up with an inconvenient port facility; some 9.5 river kilometres from the bay; but could not countenance founding a settlement that lacked access to adequate drinking water.
As for James Blackburn, the future ‘father of Melbourne’s water supply,’ his arrival at Hobart Town, in 1832, was a depressing experience—for he was a convict—yet for Tasmania it was quite a windfall, while for the future City of Melbourne, it would prove nothing short of a god-send. He was a brilliant civil engineer and architect, and during eight years of servitude made such a valuable contribution to the development of the island’s system of roads and bridges that he was granted a free pardon. Then with liberty restored, he furnished the ‘Apple Isle’ with much of its most precious heritage architecture.
Early in 1849, Blackburn moved to Melbourne and by May of that year had planned and constructed a pumping and filtration works on the Yarra near the Flinders/Elizabeth Streets intersection. After it opened, householders experienced a noticeable improvement in water quality. This must have impressed the City Councillors, because when the position of City Surveyor became available, Blackburn; along with 14 others; applied. After winning 10 of the 15 votes cast at the selection meeting, he was appointed on 23 October 1849.
In 1851 he was directed to explore the countryside around Melbourne to find the best source of a permanent water supply. Having first assessed potential sites along the Yarra near the city, he followed the river as far as “Ryrie’s Run” (Yarra Glen), then inspected parts of the Dandenong Ranges, the Merri and Darebin Creeks, and the Plenty River. At the foot of Mount Disappointment he saw that the upper reaches of the Plenty were lost in extensive swamps, eventually to emerge, and give the stream its year round flow.
At Yan Yean he found a valley, practically adjacent to the river, and almost surrounded by hills. Its north end was densely timbered with eucalypts, while a large swamp dominated its southern extremity. By constructing an embankment across the opening between two hills at its lower end he made plans for a reservoir of approximately 12,500 megalitre capacity. He also proposed to drain the upper Plenty swamps then divert some of the river’s flow into a new channel some 9.6 kilometres long, and bring it into the reservoir through a siphon over the embankment. He planned to take the bulk of the city’s needs directly from the Plenty; only drawing on the reservoir when required. Water would be conducted into a cistern near Melbourne Cemetery, at Carlton. From there it would be reticulated to every house in Melbourne; but those in the higher parts of Collingwood and Fitzroy could be serviced to the ground floor only. The cistern would be filled via an earthen aqueduct to be tapped into the river at a point about 4.8 kilometres below the reservoir.
Blackburn’s bold concept was unlike anything yet existing in Australia; and the City Council was in penury, leaving the plans nowhere to go but onto the shelf. However, in 1851 the Legislative Council decided to set-up a committee of inquiry charged with finding the best way of supplying Melbourne with water. This was done despite strident objections from the municipal Council which, under its Act of Incorporation, had responsibility for water supply.
Blackburn’s evidence to the Parliamentary enquiry was interrupted, by a dreadful accident that almost cost him his life. The report in the Melbourne Morning Herald of 31 January 1852, though grim, was hopeful:
“On Thursday last when accompanying the Right Worshipful the Mayor in ‘Beating the Bounds’, Mr Blackburn’s horse rushed his rider against a tree and so violent was the concussion that a portion of the brain was literally driven into the sufferer’s mouth. Dangerous as Mr Blackburn’s condition necessarily is from the severity of the accident, his medical attendants have hopes for his ulterior recovery”.
In the meantime, the enquiry heard from those who favoured less expensive, but more temporary, schemes based on pumping from the Yarra in the vicinity of Kew. Upon returning, Blackburn explained his gravitational proposal. Regardless of having to bring it from Yan Yean to Melbourne (30.6 kilometres), he believed it would repay the initial outlay, and return substantial profits. He also addressed the strengths and weaknesses of the pumping schemes, but advised against them because of seasonal floods in the Yarra causing lengthy periods of downtime; their liability to wear and tear; and the uncertain availability, and cost, of coal.
The Select Committee held doubts about Blackburn’s plan, but before rejecting it outright, asked Thomas Oldham C. E., and Assistant Government Surveyor Clement Hodgkinson; the proposer of one of the pumping schemes; to accompany Blackburn over the ground to review the work done and to recommend appropriate, modifications.
Oldham, though generally supportive of Blackburn’s proposal, recommended taking-in the entire flow of the river, and having the inlet channel enter about half way along the reservoir’s western shoreline; he would bring it some 403 metres under a range of hills. Thereby a ‘current would be ensured throughout the whole body of water, and the deteriorating effects of stagnation be materially obviated’. To prevent evaporation, Oldham suggested that the supply should be brought to the city through a single 51 centimetre pipe, running in as straight a line as practicable. He also stated that he considered ‘it to be in every respect a most eligible site for a reservoir, superior, in fact, as a natural site for that purpose to any I have ever seen.’ Hodgkinson, though praising Blackburn’s ability, refrained from endorsing the scheme.
Despite now considering Blackburn’s proposal, as amended by Oldham, worthy of serious consideration, the Committee stopped short of recommending either the short term quick-fix, or the visionary long-term solution, instead it advised the appointment of a commission.
The Act 16 Vic. No 39 to establish the Sewers and Water Supply Commission was passed by the Legislative Council on 8 February 1853, and it first met on 26 April. It consisted of the Mayor of Melbourne and three other men; none of them engineers. The Commission decided upon the pumping scheme, proposed by Hodgkinson, but, feeling the gravity of responsibility decided, before making its decision absolute to authorise an independent review. A young English civil engineer, Matthew Bullock Jackson, then proceeded to inspect all the schemes that had been advocated. Having done so, Jackson warmly endorsed Blackburn’s Yan Yean proposal resulting in the board, on 29 July 1853, doing a back-flip and deciding as follows:
“In reference to the resolution of the 3rd of May, that the Yarra River affords the best prospect of a copious, good, and early supply of water to the city, and that the attention of the Board be therefore directed to that river as the source of supply determined on—the Board now decides, after mature deliberation, and on the strong recommendation of their Engineer, that the River Plenty be adopted as the source of supply.”
In this way, without the ratification of Parliament; but in the full knowledge of Lieutenant Governor La Trobe, the first major Public Work in the Colony of Victoria was approved. Jackson was appointed Engineer in Chief, at £800 per annum, with Blackburn Consultant Engineer (£300). Though it seems unjust that Blackburn—the founder of the scheme—was given a subsidiary role, it is likely that his earlier injuries had robbed him of the requisite physical stamina.
In September 1853, Jackson recommended an improvement to Oldham’s amendment by suggesting that ‘instead of carrying any drains through the marshes [I would] intercept the water before it enters the marshes at all.’ He intended to tap the Plenty into an approximately 6.5 kilometre channel and bring it into the north end of the reservoir, through the intervening range of hills, via a 604 metre tunnel. To test the plan’s viability, Jackson sank vertical test shafts some 25 metres into the hillside. The surface works are still visible today.
But the Gold Rush was in full swing, and Jackson later reported that:
“…on getting tenders for executing this drift or tunnel, the price which we got in—the lowest price—was £55 a yard [total cost £36,300] …[which] rendered it undesirable. …[also], we had all believed that the stone found in this range would have withstood the action of air and water, but on trying the stone it was found it would not”.
Jackson was forced to embrace Oldham’s recommendation after all.
On 20 December 1853, the Commissioners, along with many members of the Legislative Council and other influential citizens gathered to watch the Lieutenant Governor ‘turn the first sod.’ As the ceremony had already been delayed by one hour, La Trobe could no longer wait for ‘the fancy wheelbarrow made for the occasion.’ So removed his coat, took a spade, and ‘good humouredly supplying the want of the wheelbarrow [carried] several spadefuls of earth to the end of the platform, and [tossed] them into the air, amidst the cheers of the assembled spectators.’ Construction on Melbourne’s first permanent water supply had officially begun!
Sadly, Blackburn would not see the completion of his dream. The Argus of 4 March 1854 contained the following: ‘Death; on the 3rd instant at his Residence, Great Brunswick Street, James Blackburn Esq., City Surveyor of this City, aged fifty one years.His death certificate states that he died from typhoid fever. He left a widow Rachael, four sons and one daughter.
Unlike Blackburn’s concept, the embankment would be 985 metres long, 9.15 metres high and oriented due north and south. Along its length, and forming its centre, Jackson created an impervious wall of puddled mud. The water-side of the embankment was pitched with bluestone to prevent its destruction by lapping waves. An outlet pipe passed through the embankment into a square bluestone tower well, with its other end connected to the hexagonal valve chest on the air side from which the flow to Melbourne was regulated. A 1.5 metre deep bluestone lined bye-wash to the Plenty was dug through the hillside at the south end to ensure against overflows destroying the embankment. The reservoir’s maximum depth is 7.6 metres, with an overall average of 5.5 metres. Its surface area is 5.27 square kilometres, and its shoreline is about 16 kilometres around. At 30,000 megalitres it is more than double Blackburn’s proposed 12,500 megalitre capacity, and when full could supply 100,000 people with 136 litres per day for seven years.
On 31 December 1857 Governor Barkley was ill, so the honour of ‘turning the Yan Yean on’ fell to the Deputy Governor and Commander in Chief of Her Majesty’s armed forces in Australia, Major General (later Sir) Edward Macarthur, son of John and Elizabeth Macarthur, of Parramatta, N.S.W.; who, at Carlton Gardens opened the first valve. Then, with spectators and union banners following, the dignitaries—with a brass band and a Militia Regiment in the lead—marched to the Flinders/Elizabeth Streets intersection. There, the Major General opened another valve to release a jet of water in a high arc straight into a carriage full of women. As they sat, soaked and screamed, with their conveyance awash, the crowd milled about in an aimless rush to escape the deluge; thus forcing the driver to endure a prolonged battering from the torrent. At the first opportunity the unhappy party hastened away, only to be caught by a new jet from the opposite corner of Elizabeth Street, so that carriage and passengers were virtually washed off the intersection.
Many problems had been encountered, and many more would follow—like a water supply that was offensive to the eye, nose and tastebuds alike; and ‘water famines’ caused by burst mains to mention but two. However, in one respect the Yan Yean proved spectacularly efficient. In 1859 Commissioner G.S.W. Horne, in relation to fire fighting, stated that although a fire hose could not survive under full mains pressure; at maximum tolerance, the force was so great that ‘the wall of a house was recently knocked down by the water and the roof blown off’. But speaking on that euphoric day, only 22 years after the city’s foundation, Commissioner Charles Griffith (as reported in the Herald of 1 January 1858) described the Yan Yean as ‘one of the greatest and most important hydraulic works in the British Empire.’
As for James Blackburn, the Argus of 7 March 1854, quoting from the City Council’s Minutes, in relation to his death, stated that:
“Alderman Clowes moved the following motion: ‘that the Council desire to record its appreciation of the valuable service of the late City Surveyor, James Blackburn, Esq., and express its deep regret at the loss of so valuable an officer. That an expression of condolence with Mrs. Blackburn, be drawn up, and forwarded to that lady, indicative of the Council’s sincere sympathy with her in her melancholy bereavement, and that the Town Clerk be authorised to attach the Seal of the Corporation thereto, and forward the same to Mrs. Blackburn.”
If this document still exists, it is the only official recognition of a man to whom Melburnians owe a great and enduring debt of gratitude. His role was seminal to providing the possibility of achieving long term growth for the city and its suburbs far into the future.
Jackson, on the other hand, intending that nobody should ever forget his efforts, provided his own tribute by inscribing his name on the Tower Well—now, with the Reservoir having served Melbourne for 150 years—his pride and satisfaction seem well justified!
As well as being the first of the many storages that today supply Melbourne with water, the Yan Yean Reservoir was recognised by the Australian Committee of the International Commission on Large Dams, when in 1982 it was identified as Australia’s first large dam.
The Australian Encyclopaedia (1996) states:
…The first dam of any consequence constructed in Australia was Yan Yean, completed in 1857 …Other reservoirs of the period were much smaller …The success of Yan Yean did much to stimulate dam-building, and over the ensuing half-century 40 substantial projects were completed, culminating in 1907 with the construction of the Cataract Dam to supply Sydney with water.
Therefore the Yan Yean Reservoir is of primary historical importance, both locally and to Australia.
